Improving flood resilience

MA Assist explains why it has teamed up with Aquobex in order to deliver higher property resilience to flooding

Ten years ago, the UK experienced its worst ever flooding, with deluges affecting over 20 counties and resulting in a reported £6.5 billion worth of damage.

Then in 2015 as Christmas approached, Storm Desmond hit the UK, closely followed by Storm Eva. The consequent flooding affected around 16,000 homes and left many homeless. The insurance industry responded by setting up the Flood Re specialist insurance scheme.

The scheme has got off to a great start with the insurance industry now offering an improved service for households that have previously claimed for flooding. But there’s more to be done.

Resilience

The focus is now on flood resilience. In just one example, the Building Research Establishment recently completed its Flood Resilient Repair House at its innovation park, with the aim of raising awareness among contractors of the practical steps they can take to repair damage to a residential property and to better protect it from further flooding in the future.

In a similar effort, to apply this prevention-is-better-than-cure approach for homes at risk of flooding, MA Assist has teamed up with Aquobex, which manufactures flood management solutions.

The aim of the collaboration is to normalise the uptake of property level resilience. This can be done by homeowners proactively installing products such as flood safety doors, flood barriers and air brick covers, moving electrical sockets higher and waterproofing brickwork to decrease the risk of flood damage.

MA Assist provides the flood advice, home surveys, scope of works, pre-site visits and installation. Aquobex provides products such as flood guards, safety doors and slot in barriers. It’s an effective partnership, as Jorge Gonzalo, MA Assist managing director, explains.

Finding the right solutions

“Working with Aquobex we can do what the Flood Re Action Plan asks us to do,” says Gonzalo. “We can help householders by advising them and finding the right solutions to protect their homes from flooding.

“We can coordinate everything too, including the installers. The contractors get special installation training from by the Property Care Association who, like MA Assist, is TrustMark registered. The whole process, and the people involved, gives homeowners peace of mind.”

His colleague, John Alexander, managing director of Aquobex, says that it is imperative that all the different parties involved with flooding resilience work together, whether that’s the insurer, property claims manager or the product manufacturers.

“That’s why we’ve teamed up with MA Assist and we’re already looking forward to launching our next phase of products including flood resilient kitchens and high-level electrics and interior walls & floors,” he says.

Gonzalo adds: “We can’t control the weather but hopefully by educating homeowners at risk of flooding on how they can make their homes flood-resilient, the next time there are large scale floods they will be better protected.”

Read more about MA Assist’s views on property flood resilience and find out more about the service MA Assist and Aquobex can offer here.

Claims Media